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Wednesday, November 14, 2018

RS extends Zerynth Studio tool to blockchain and IoT

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

Distributor RS Components has added blockchain and IoT capabilities to its  DesignSpark Zerynth Studio middleware toolkit.

This will allow members of the DesignSpark engineering community can now use Python to program microcontrollers for blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) applications through the DesignSpark Zerynth Studio suite, which is available to download free of charge via a portal on the DesignSpark website.

The Zerynth Studio toolkit enables fast IoT application development, with high-level standards of security, as developers can program in Python or a hybrid C/Python language on the most popular 32-bit microcontrollers and connect them to cloud infrastructures. The move opens up the use of Zerynth for IoT applications and embedded development to the huge community of programmers who use Python, a powerful programming language, which is widely used with the highly popular Raspberry Pi single board computer, for example.

The extension of the DesignSpark Zerynth Studio middleware toolkit is made possible with the introduction of the open-source Zerynth Ethereum Library. It allows microcontrollers to generate and sign Ethereum transactions based on just a few lines of Python. Ethereum is an open-source distributed-computing platform that generates the blockchain for the Ether crypto-currency.

The Ethereum library therefore provides developers with easy connection to the Ethereum blockchain and to use smart contracts and seamlessly integrate IoT devices with decentralised applications (DApps). The ability to generate, sign and send transactions from a microcontroller enables any device capable of running the cryptography algorithms to directly take advantage of smart contracts, which deliver credible and trackable transactions, thereby removing the need for centralised gateways as well as avoiding possible points of failure.

Zerynth launched through a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015, originally under the name VIPER, with the aim of providing professional development tools for embedded and IoT applications in Python. The tools simplify IoT development, providing an easy and efficient way to program the most popular 32-bit microcontrollers in Python and connect them to the top Cloud infrastructures like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, IBM Bluemix, and Google Cloud IoT.

The Zerynth Ecosystem consists of Zerynth Studio, Zerynth Virtual Machine, Zerynth Advanced Device Manager and Zerynth App.

Zerynth has been listed as a Trusted IoT Platform Partner by Microchip as a genuine security expert on Microchip technologies. Zerynth has also formed numerous partnerships with companies like Espressif Systems, NXP, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, RS Components, Mouser Electronics, XinaBox, Eseye, MikroElektronika, Riverdi and more.
"Having the possibility to generate, sign and send transactions from the inside of a microcontroller enables any device capable of running the cryptography algorithms to directly take advantage of smart contracts, removing centralised gateways and points of failure,” said Giacomo Baldi, CTO of Zerynth. “This can be applied to many different fields, and increases trust between consumers and third parties.”

Mike Bray, Vice President of DesignSpark, added: “Zerynth gives our users access to one of the most intuitive programming studios available, supporting their new designs. The addition of the new feature set supporting blockchain and crypto-currency transactions expands the capabilities of the platform, placing Zerynth at the forefront of new application development and programming. We’re delighted to have made another significant addition to the tools and resources available to our DesignSpark community.”

The DesignSpark Zerynth Studio middleware toolkit for Windows, Mac and Linux is available to download for free from https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/zerynth for all new and existing members of the DesignSpark community.

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